The American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday that it is suing the Washington, D.C., metro system for rejecting as too "political' four municipal transit ads on birth control, alt-right activist Milo Yiannopoulos, vegans and even one by the ACLU itself featuring the First Amendment in English, Spanish and Arabic.

"You don’t have to be a First Amendment scholar to know that something about that stinks," the ACLU said.

The four plaintiffs in our case span the political spectrum, illustrating the indivisibility of the First Amendment. https://t.co/IR9CtYzpsk

The ACLU and the local ACLU chapters from Virginia and the District of Columbia were joining to represent a diverse group of plaintiffs: Carafem, a health care network specializing in birth control and medication abortion; People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals; Milo Worldwide, LLC, the corporate entity for English political commentator and provocateur Milo Yiannopolous and the ACLU itself.

"To put it mildly, these plaintiffs have nothing in common politically. But together, they powerfully illustrate the indivisibility of the First Amendment," the
ACLU said. "Our free speech rights rise and fall together — whether left, right, pro-choice, anti-choice, vegan, carnivore, or none of the above."

The policies of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) forbid, among other things, accepting ads “intended to influence members of the public regarding an issue on which there are varying opinions” or “intended to influence public policy.”

Sherri Ly, spokesperson for the transit authority, said the current ad policy has been in effect for two years.

"In 2015, WMATA’s Board of Directors changed its advertising forum to a nonpublic forum and adopted commercial advertising guidelines that prohibit issue-oriented ads, including political, religious and advocacy ads," she said. "WMATA intends to vigorously defend its commercial advertising guidelines, which are reasonable and view-point neutral."

She confirmed that the Yiannopolous ad had been turned down but could not immediately confirm the status of the other three ads.

The policy change came as the transit system was weighing a request by an anti-Muslim group to run ads showing the Prophet Muhammad, which is offensive to Muslims.

The proposed ad was submitted by Pamela Geller, the head of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), which has been labeled an anti-Muslim hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, The Hill reported.

In the current dispute, the rejected ads, according to the ACLU, include one for Carafem, supporting access to a 10-week-after pill for abortions.

Another, from PETA, shows a pig with the accompanying text reading, “I’m ME, Not MEAT. See the Individual. Go Vegan.”

The ACLU noted that the metro system does accept adds that encourage people to eat animal-based food, wear clothing made from animals or attend circus performances.

"PETA’s side of this public debate was the only one silenced by the government," the ACLU charged.

The rejected ad for Milo Worldwide was promoting a new book by the alt-right activist.

The ACLU noted that while Yiannapolous "trades on outrage," the civil liberties group was representing him even though it condemns many of his views, including branding feminism a cancer, declaring transgender individuals as having psychological problems and comparing Black Lives Matter activists to the KKK.

"The ideas espoused by each of these four plaintiffs are anathema to someone — as is pretty much every human idea," the ACLU said. "By rejecting these ads and accepting ads from gambling casinos, military contractors and Internet sex apps, the WMATA showed just how subjective its ban is.

"At the end of the day, it’s a real shame that the WMATA didn’t accept the ACLU’s advertisement — the agency could really have used that refresher on the First Amendment," the organization said in a statement.